Solid-liquid separation does not only involve the separation of solid particles from liquid or water, but also the classification of solid particles and their separation from each another. Solid-liquid separation is extensively applied in different fields such as mineral processing, metallurgy, environmental protection, as well as chemical, coal, power industries etc. The solid liquid separation has two main technologies, namely, concentration and filtration. Concentration has four types of major equipments: round pool thickeners, inclined-plate thickeners, inclined-tube thickeners, and high-efficiency thickeners.
The round pool thickeners exhibit defects such as vast land space, small capacity, poor efficiency, etc., which are limited in commercial practice and being gradually replaced by other devices.
High-efficiency thickeners can increase the capacity and improve, thickening efficiency by adding the suitable amount of flocculants into ore pulps. However, with their relatively high operating cost, these thickeners also have application constraints.
By installing inclined plates or tubes in set din tanks, lamella thickeners and inclined-tube thickeners can enlarge settlement areas, reduce the required hind areas, and increase capacities. Lamella thickeners include conventional open feed inclined plate thickeners, integrated inclined lamella thickening and classifying equipment (Chinese Patent, Publication No.: CN 1122578), and high-frequency vibrating multi-channel integrated lamella thickening and classifying equipment (Chinese Patent, Publication No: CN 101239338). Lamella thickeners and inclined-tube thickeners have been applied in production widely by their small land area and large capacity. In particular, the vibrating high-frequency multi-channel integrated lamella thickening and classifying equipment is one of the most widely used sizing-thickening equipment because it had solved the technical problems of conventional lamella thickeners such as inclined plates caked with mud and blockage of the settlement channels.
We have found that the existing lamella thickeners also have several technical limitations in practice. These limitations include more parts required for the inclined plate assembly, unstable support of the inclined plate assembly, easily deformed of plate etc., which should be improved and enhanced.